ESOCS LENTEN SEASON DAY 15 TOPIC: MERCY AND CARE FOR THE POOR,WIDOWS, STRANGERS AND ALL OTHERS LESSON: ZECHARIAH 7:8-11 Dearly beloved of God, we affectionately welcome you all to the 15th day of the 2014 Lenten Season of the ESOCS Church, worldwide. We give thanks to God for His mercies and care upon us all. Our topic for today is MERCY AND CARE FOR THE POOR, WIDOWS, STRANGERS AND ALL OTHER PEOPLE and our lesson is being taken from ZECHARIAH 7:8-11. Let us first define some key words from our topic and then go into our lesson for the day. KEYWORDS * MERCY: This refers to a soft feeling of affection and compassion that is expressed to someone. * CARE: This also means to have thoughts and regards for someone. Hence we have defined these key words, shall we now go into our lesson and find out what God has to say as regards this sin. SOME NOTES ON OUR LESSON: * Our lessons begins with God sending His Word to Zechariah asking him to send the message to His people. And the message was that, we should, Execute true judgement, and show mercy and compassion every man to his brother. (Zechariah 7:8-9). Furthermore, God tells us that, And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil in his heart against his brother. (Zechariah 7:10). Our God has given us these instructions concerning the less privileged among us. We are not supposed to maltreat them, neither are we supposed to infringe on their rights. We must always think about their betterment and how best to provide good and satisfactory living standards for them. Their welfare must be our priority. * However, we have failed to abide by these instructions. We rather derive joy and find pleasure in doing the contrary of these instructions. This was why God told Zechariah that, But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. Out of stubbornness, we have ignored the laws of God; out of pride, we have oppressed the poor, the strangers, the widows and the less privileged in our societies, families, homes and even churches. But is this really what God wants from us??? * Sometims we give the excuse that, such people are our enemies, or their husbands, wives or children are suffering because of the evil things their spouses or parents might have done against us. But that is not really the case. We are not in the right positions to judge, except God, the most righteous Judge. Rather, If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22). God promises to reward us for doing all these things. This is because, the person you call your enemy is also a child of God, and no father will sit down and allow his child to be made to undergo sufferings. This is why we must leave God to judge in all situations and then also for Him to avenge any wrong done against us, because vengeance belongs to him. * What is expected of us is to let mercy and truth never forsake nor leave us. We must bind them around our necks and write them upon the tablets of our hearts. (Proverbs 3:3). That is to say, wherever we go, we must hold firmly to mercy and truth and show them to whoever we come across in life. We must always make mercy part and parcel of us in all our endeavours. * Also as Christians and therefore children of the Most High God, our Saviour Jesus Christ advises us that, we must be Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36). Let us not forget that, So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27). This therefore means that, since we are created in the image and likeness of God, we must possess some of His qualities if not all. And one great quality possessed by our God is MERCY and also CARE. This was why He told us that, the thoughts He has for us are not of evil, but of good. As such, we must also be be merciful like Christ advised and have good thoughts towards each other especially the less privileged. Its true sometimes we will say that, we are humans and therefore bound to sin, However, for us to gain the Kingdom of God, we must let our righteousness be more than our unrighteousness. And in the end, in our imperfect mortal state, Christ who will now dwell in us, will make us perfect creatures unto God by His blood. * Finally brethren, let us do well to cater for the poor and the needy, to provide joy for the widows and fatherless among us and then also to make the stranger feel peace in our midst and God Himself will reward us. May we be granted the grace to do the will of God in all endeavours of ours, amen. Lord Mensahfio SNTI Correspondent ESOCS Ghana.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 17:40:59 +0000
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